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There has been an increase in the number of visitor arrivals to our shores by 11.5 per cent compared to the same period last year.
According to the Tourism Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Australia has grown by 24.8 per cent, New Zealand by 20.9 per cent, EU by 1.6 per cent, South Korea 44.3 per cent, China 111.2 per cent, India 124.4 per cent and Taiwan by 92 per cent.
Last February, Australian visitors to Fiji totaled 10,239. This year recorded 12, 777 for the same period.
For NZ, a total of 3411 tourists arrived in February while last year, the number only totaled 2822.
“Three major countries that have had major negative growth have been USA 6.8 per cent, Canada 13.4 per cent and Japan, 48.5 per cent
“These trends are similar to what we had in January,” Sayed-Khaiyum said.
“We should not rest on our lows because as you know last year January and February we were affected by the flooding and we also had the recession,” he said.
Sayed-Khaiyum told journalists that the marketing strategy for Tourism Fiji is quite specifically targeted and there is a need to grow the NZ and Australian markets.
“Whilst we grow in the Australian and NZ tourist markets, we want the percentage of the total contribution of the tourism arrivals in Fiji to increase from other countries so we spread our risks. So by spreading our risks, we are able to cushion ourselves.
“If you are too reliant on one country, and there is a recession in that country, there will be a bigger impact on us.”
He said with the new markets opening up due to the new direct flights from Nadi to Hong Kong, Fiji is able to tap into China, India and lots of other European markets.
